Neighborhoods

SNOW CLEARING

Clearing the streets after a snowstorm is always going to be a challenge. Here are a few priorities of mine:

The 2014 KPMG report made a series of sensible recommendations about how to improve snowclearing operations. Many will take a long time to implement, such as designing new suburbs to contain adequate space for snow, or moving utility poles that interfere with snowclearing. We should aim to fully implement the report over time.

The City has improved its sidewalk clearing operations significantly over the past few years, but many areas are still not walkable in the winter. We should aim for four-season walkability.

Climate change may change our snow-clearing needs. Snowfall may become larger or more variable. We should watch for that.

In some areas, sidewalk clearing and plowing are doing significant damage to private property, destroying grass etc. We should examine solutions.

Pre-salting roadways prior to heavy snowfalls decreases the total salt needed to melt snow and ice from the road surface. Pre-salting improves storm water quality by decreasing salt, sand, and grit loading to the natural environment, and lowers costs of snow clearing.